From the onset of NATO’s aggression from March 24 to June 11, 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) flew over 35,000 combat missions over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia […]
From the onset of NATO’s aggression from March 24 to June 11, 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) flew over 35,000 combat missions over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Over 1,000 warplanes (among others F-15, F-16, F-117) and 206 helicopters were used in the air strikes. More than 20,000 laser or satellite-guided weapons were launched and over 79,000 tons of explosives were dropped, including 152 containers with 35,450 cluster bombs, thermo-visual and graphite bombs, which are prohibited under international conventions.1
The NATO forces justified the bombing of civilian targets as either “mistakes” or essential to the destruction of Milosevic and the Yugoslav Army. However, these attacks were not made solely against military targets but against the Yugoslav population as a whole. As a direct result of the bombings, thousands of civilians were killed and more than 6,000 sustained serious injuries. A large number of the injured will remain crippled for life. NATO bombings have burned amputated, wounded and disabled many civilians of all-ethnic groups, ages, and genders. Children make made up 30% of all casualties as well as 40% of the total number injured. In addition, approximately 300,000 children have suffered severe psychological traumas and will require continuos medical surveillance and treatment. Children have been victims of the sprinkle cluster bombs, with delayed effects, and will continue to be victimized until all parks, play-fields and open areas have been made safe from the remaining unexploded bombs scattered throughout Yugoslavia.
What follows are the most tragic instances of civilian casualties and suffering as a result of the unprovoked aggression of the NATO Alliance on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as reported by the “Provisional Assessment of Civilian Casualties and Destruction in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 8 19992” and the “Overview of the Collateral Damage in Yugoslavia.”3 This is not a complete accounting of civilian casualties, which is not yet available at this time (July 31. 1999). Surdulica:An attack on a peaceful rural town on April 27,1999, resulted in 20 civilian deaths, including 12 children between the ages of 5 and 12, and over 100 wounded, of which 24 critically. Several hundred civilian objects were also damaged; some of them completely destroyed. The attacks were repeated the next day, which made it difficult to recover bodies.
Korisa: On the night of May 14, 1999, NATO performed an attack with six missiles on refugees situated on a farm in the village of Korisa. 87 civilians were killed and 70 were severely injured. “NATO spokesmen blamed the deaths on Yugoslavia authorities, claiming they had used the refugees as “human shields” by forcing them to spend the night next to a military or police command center. Despite the report, the refugees said that they saw no signs that the compound was being used as a local military or police command center. Nor did they report seeing any of the artillery pieces located in bunkers that NATO claimed were destroyed in the attack” (Washington Post, 5/21/99).
Djakovica: On April 14, 1999, a convoy of Albanian refugees was bombed four times by NATO planes. The refugees were moving down the Prizren-Djakovica road. 75 people were killed and 100 were wounded. All of the victims were ethnic Albanians, mostly children, women and elderly people. Since the attack was carried out in daylight, the convoy consisted mostly of agricultural vehicles and civilian cars, and the attack was repeated four times with long periods of time between them. The possibility of such an attack being accidental is highly unlikely.
Gredelica: NATO hit an international train, on regular service from Belgrade to Thessalonki (Greece), in the vicinity of Leskovac on Monday, April 12, 1999. 55 passengers were killed, including a ten-year-old child. More than 60 passengers were wounded. All casualties were civilians.
Luzane: On May 1, 1999, on a bridge in Luzane, a ” Nis Express” bus with 70 passengers, on a regular service linking Nis and Pristina, was hit by a missile that directly split the bus in two. One half of the bus remained on the bridge burning for an hour, while the other half plunged into the valley. At least 50 passengers were killed and 13 were injured. In the second wave of the attack, an ambulance was damaged and one medical doctor was seriously wounded in the head. An eyewitness to the attack said that the bus was filled with civilians, mostly children and elderly people.
Istok: On May 21, 1999, at 8:40 am, a prison was hit with two missiles, killing one man and seriously injuring one woman. The attack was repeated at 9:20 am with ten missiles. The second attack left nine people dead including the deputy governor. At least ten people were injured. Since then, NATO has bombed this prison several times. The death toll is now 100.
Varvarin: 17 civilians were killed while 74 were injured in an attack on a road bridge on a busy market day.
Belgrade: Belgrade suffered the most hits during the entire two months of NATO’s aggression. On May 20,1999 at 12:55 am NATO directly hit the “Dragisa Misovic” hospital in the neurological ward, the gynecological ward and the children’s ward for lung diseases were completely destroyed. NATO admitted that one of the laser-guided bombs overshot it’s target by about 1,500 feet. Four patients were killed and several women in labor were wounded. The Chinese Embassy Building also suffered numerous direct hits as well. One half of the building was destroyed. Four Chinese citizens were killed and 20 were injured. On April 23, 1999, around 2 am, the Serbian National Broadcasting Network was destroyed just a few hundred feet from a children’s theater, the City Children Center and the local market. A transmitter used by foreign journalists situated in Belgrade was also destroyed. More than 15 civilian employees of the TV station were killed. A three-year-old girl named Milica Rakic was killed in the NATO attack on Batajnica, a satellite suburb of Belgrade. Her death became a symbol of the meaningless loss of life of innocent civilians in this war. The Administrative Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was hit several times. Several civilians passing by at the time of the attack were killed.
Nis: On May 7, 1999, at least 16 civilians were killed when cluster bombs fell on the town market. 80 civilians were also injured in a repeated attack on housing blocks in central Nis. Cluster bombs are used for the destruction of people and are forbidden by the Geneva Convention.
Savine Vode: OnMay 3, 1999, during a NATO attack, another civilian bus on the route between Djakovica-Podgorica was hit. At least 20 people were killed and 43 injured. There were large numbers of women and children among the victims. During the attack, cluster bombs were used. Several civilian cars were also destroyed. Rescue teams and ambulances were not able to help the victims due to the prolonged attack.
Aleksinac: Five NATO missiles hit Aleksinac, a small mining community on April 6, 1999. 17 civilians were killed, although there is no military infrastructure in the residential area that was bombed. More than 400 homes were destroyed.
Kursumilija: In NATO attacks on Kursumilija, a small town in Southern Serbia, 13 citizens were killed and more than 25 were severely injured.
Novi Pazar: 13 civilians were killed and 35 were wounded in an attack on the residential area in the center of the town during which 25 buildings were completely destroyed.
Nagavac: 11 civilians were killed and 5 wounded in an attack on a rural area.
Pristina: 10 civilians were killed including 7 children during an attack with cluster bombs upon a peaceful rural village.
Murino: 6 civilians including two children were killed and 8 injured in an attack on a village predominately inhabited by Albanians.
Merdare: 5 civilians were killed, including an 11-month-old baby, and several wounded when 8 containers holding, 1,920 cluster bombs were dropped in an attack on the Prokuplje-Pristina road.
Doganavici: 5 Albanian children were killed and two wounded when they came upon an unexploded cluster bomb in a field.
Grijilane: 4 civilians were killed and 19 wounded in an attack in the Argicultural Complex “Mladost” and transport company “Kosmet Prevoz.”
Pancevo: On Saturday May 1, 1999, 3 civilians have been killed and 4 wounded in attacks on commercial and industrial facilities.
Ralija: 3 civilians were killed and 3 injured, two of whom were children, in an attack on the village of Ralija.
Kragujevac: More than 120 workers, who were forming a live shield, were wounded in a deliberate attack on the “Zastava” car factory.
Vranje: 2 civilians were killed and 23 wounded in an attack on central Vranje.
Kraljevo: In an attack upon civilian target in Vitanovac, Varca, and Bogutovac, 14 civilians were killed.
Novi Sad: NATO attacked an oil refinery in Novi Sad more than 10 times. Due to the smoke from burning refineries, normal breathing for the people of Novi Sad is now very difficult. Water from the public water supply is no longer drinkable. As a result of the bombings, one civilian was killed and 45 injured.
Trstenik: In an attack on a bridge, one civilian was killed and 17 injured.
Vladcin Han: 2 civilians were killed and wounded in an attack on a road bridge on the Juzna Morava river.
Village Rodosta: 2 two children were killed and one wounded in a NATO cluster bomb attack on this peaceful village near Orahovac.
Cuprija: One civilian was killed and 14 injured in an attack on the central residential area of the town. Over 800 housing units were demolished during the attacks.
Krk Bunar: One civilian was killed and 3 injured (French philosopher Daniel Schiffer, “Times” reporter Eve-Ann Prentis and “Corriera della Sera”) in an attack on the central residential area of the town. Over 800 housing units were demolished during the attacks.
Mijatovac: 4 Romanian humanitarian workers were wounded in an attack on a bridge near Mijatovac.
Zlatibor: The recreational center on the mountain of Zlatibor was attacked by NATO. As a result, three civilians were killed.
Cacak: A residential area near the factory was also destroyed. Two persons were killed, one of them a 74-year-old woman, and 7 were injured. Urosevac:A residential suburb of Urosevac was demolished in a NATO attack. Several people were killed.
Many of NATO’s targets were in clear violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits bombing that is not justified by clear military necessity. Under the protocols of the convention, if there is any likelihood that the target has a civilian function, bombing is prohibited.4 For instance, in the case of the targeting of bridges that were used primarily by civilians, it is not enough to say that NATO was merely reckless as to the fate of civilians. NATO targeted not just the military apparatus of Yugoslavia, it sought to devastate and did devastate the civilian infrastructure of Yugoslavia. Electricity power stations, water supplies, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, train tracks, factories, offices and thousands of homes and families were torn apart.
1. Provisional Assessment of Civilian Casualties and Destruction in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 8, 1999, www.beograd.com.
Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.
Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!
Donate to Support Us
We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics, and international relations.
Read the opinion by Noam Chomsky about POTUS (Presidents of USA) after the Second World War in the light of the Nuremberg laws.Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]
As 2016 closes, we find ourselves a deeply unsettled nation. We’re unable to draw the lines of our national interest. Is it jobs and economy, is it national security, or is it now in our interest to ensure global security — in other words, act as the world’s policemen?As the “failing” (to quote Trump) New York Times degenerates into a Washington Post organization with its stagnant Cold War vision of a 1950s world where the Russians are to blame for most everything — Hillary’s loss, most of the aggression and disorder in the world, the desire to destabilize Europe, etc. — the Times has added the ...
It’s all over but the postmortems. Trump and Clinton are their parties’ presumptive nominees. Choice for voters in November amounts to death by hanging or firing squad. Democracy is pure fantasy. None whatever exists. Trump was the last GOP aspirant left standing after all others dropped out, an unlikely choice, a surprise winner, prevailing despite party bosses opposing him.Democrat power brokers chose Clinton before primary/caucus season began. The race was over before it started.Voters in November get to choose between a dirty business as usual billionaire racist, demagogue and a recklessly dangerous neocon racketeer, war criminal, Wall Street tool she ...
Both before and after Crimea left Ukraine and joined Russia in a public referendum on 16 March 2014, the Gallup Organization polled Crimeans on behalf of the U.S. Government, and found them to be extremely pro-Russian and anti-American, and also anti-Ukrainian. (Neither poll was subsequently publicized, because the results of each were the opposite of what the sponsor had wished.) Both polls were done on behalf of the U.S. Government, in order to find Crimeans’ attitudes toward the United States and toward Russia, and also toward Ukraine, not only before but also after the planned U.S. coup in Ukraine, which occurred ...
Germany joined the war against Yugoslavia under the pretense of fabricated facts. Sensational confession of German policeman Henning Hentz who served in the OSCE in Kosovo in the 90s confirmed that.The reason here is that photographs taken by Hentz in late January 1999 were used by then German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping to justify the immediate interference of NATO in the Kosovo conflict. He presented the photographs of the militants killed in Rugovo as photos of innocent Albanian victims.What did really happen in Kosovo in late January of 1999, several months before NATO launched its operation against Yugoslavia?According to Serbian ...
For years now, the Western elite have been incessantly pushing the slogan that ‘Assad must go.’ Under the pretext of removing an ‘evil’ dictator and helping the people of Syria, the West has been funding, arming and training an array of Al-Qaeda affiliated legions to force regime change in the country. Contrary to helping the people of Syria however, this has only worked to bring pain, misery and tragedy to Syria.Even the former US Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, admitted that the insistence on ‘Assad must go’ has “paralyzed” any rationale Syrian strategy. Whenever the West appears to have moved on ...
“To Hell and Back” is a phrase that can bear a pretty heavy metaphorical load when it comes to talking about the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It’s also the title of a book by Charles Pellegrino.Pellegrino’s book is a moving and grueling close-up look at the horrors experienced by the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both on the day of the bombing and in the days and years afterward. I have the heart of a dried-up raisin but even I got a little teary in places.There are few opportunities for inspiring “triumph of the human spirit” narratives amid ...
Somewhere in the 20th century — it is difficult to determine precisely when, but many point to the 1990s anti-Serb craze — historical revisionism on WWI that would have been laughed out of the room in the 1920s and 1930s became widespread in the western mainstream media.Nobody should be surprised to learn this is an ailment that therefore also affects RT. The Russian-funded outlet is staffed by westerners and modeled after western news channels – and is as such frequently only marginally less wrong on numerous issues than its western counterparts. (All the more so when it comes to the little-understood Balkans.)Covering ...
In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, U.S. president George H. W. Bush through his secretary of state James Baker promised Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev that in exchange for Soviet cooperation on German reunification, the Cold War era NATO alliance would not expand “one inch” eastwards towards Russia. Baker told Gorbachev: “Look, if you remove your [300,000] troops [from east Germany] and allow unification of Germany in NATO, NATO will not expand one inch to the east.”In the following year, the USSR officially dissolved itself. Its own defensive military alliance (commonly known as the Warsaw Pact) had already ...
It's no secret that President Trump believes NATO is an anachronism. It's also no secret that French President Emmanuel Macron wants a Grand Army of the EU and a single EU Finance Minister to further integration of the EU into the United States of Europe.He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have been championing these two things since the day after Macron took office. They are both pushing hard for the EU to conduct independent foreign policy, framing Trump's belligerence as the catalyst for its need now.So, I’m not surprised in the wake of Merkel’s garden summit with Russian President Vladimir ...
Part IThe historical background of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is going back to 1917 (the Balfour Declaration) and the establishment of the British protectorate over Palestine (the Palestine Mandate) after WWI with its provision for a national home for the Jews, although formally not to be at the expense of the local inhabitants – the Palestinians. Nevertheless, it became in practice the focal problem to keep an appropriate balance between these stipulations to be acceptable to both sides – the Jews and the Palestinians.The people and the landSince the time of the Enlightenment followed by the Romanticism, in West Europe emerged ...
Global Research Editor’s NoteRatko Mladić has recently been convicted to life imprisonment by the the ICTY on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity while he was Chief Commander of the Army of Republika Srpska between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.This detailed account first published in 1998 by former UN Military Observer Carlos Martino Branco casts doubts on the decision of the Hague Tribunal (ICTY) that “genocide was committed in Srebrenica in 1995.”“…Bosnia Serb forces carried out genocide against the Bosnian Muslims (…) .Those who devise and implement genocide seek to deprive humanity of the manifold ...
INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY ERIC ZUESSE: A friend, Russell Bentley, in Lugansk in the far-eastern Donbas region which had been part of Ukraine until Obama's 2014 coup in Ukraine overthrew Ukraine's democratically elected and neutralist President and replaced his Government by racist-fascist (or nazi) anti-Russian zealots, who promptly launched an ethnic-cleansing campaign against the residents in Donbas (which region of Ukraine had voted 90%+ for that neutralist to become Ukraine's President) sent me this grim follow-up news-report:By Russell Bentley, 17 October, 2021 I recently witnessed the exhumation of human remains from a mass grave that contains over 200 bodies. It was a profound and profoundly disturbing experience. Each body in this grave ...
A new Foundation for the Study of Democracy (FSD) report is titled “War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture of the Donbass region residents.”It provides graphic evidence of horrendous Kiev war crimes Western media ignore.Earlier articles discussed Kiev’s dirty war. It deliberately targeted civilian neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and infrastructure.It used of cluster munitions, white phosphorous and other chemical weapons, as well as cold-blooded murder of hundreds of captives.Most were abducted civilians. They were brutally tortured, murdered and secretly buried. Eyewitnesses exposed the crimes.FSD’s report provides more damning evidence of junta torture, inhumane and degrading treatment.Over 100 former ...
When the civil war in Ukraine started, the question that arised is whether there are similarities between Ukrainian and Yugoslavian civil wars. So let’s compare these two countries, one that is falling apart – Ukraine and the other one that doesn’t exist anymore – Yugoslavia.Multinational countryYugoslavia was a multinational country with different national and ethnic groups coexisting together and two dominant nations Serbs and Croats. Ukraine is also quite a diverse country with Ukrainians, Russians (around 20% of Ukrainian population) and few minorities (Rusyns, Romanians, Hungarians) living together. Once the Yugoslavia collapsed, in a newly created ex-Yugoslav republic Croatia and ...
A project for Greater Albania – conspiracy or legitimate? According to a 2010 Gallup Balkan Monitor report, 83% of Albanians in Albania supported the idea of a Greater Albania, with 81% and 53% of Albanians in Kosovo and North Macedonia respectively supporting such an ambition.The ultimate goal? To have Kosovo and the Preševo Valley in Serbia, southern Montenegro, Epirus in Greece and western North Macedonia into a single Greater Albanian state. Although this may not be official policy of the Albanian Republic, it is ingrained into the Albanian mythos. The very idea of a Greater Albania has roots in the 1913 Treaty of London that left roughly 40% ...
King Abdullah is being eulogized in the most unrealistic ways possible, from CNN designating him as a “reformer” to Chuck Hagel calling him “a powerful voice for tolerance, moderation and peace — in the Islamic world and across the globe.” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin takes the cake, however, by proclaiming that “his smart policy contributed greatly to Middle East stability.” None of these characterizations are true in any way, as Abdullah’s main legacy isn’t one of reform, tolerance, and regional stability, but of destruction, hate, and regional instability. Every contemporary Mideast problem except for the Israel-Palestine issue can be directly ...
"We are a peaceful nation," claimed Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson in an interview with Katie Couric late last year.Carson voiced a view that is held by many in our society. Like most people around the world, we naturally like to think of ourselves as a peace loving country.Unfortunately, the record does not bear this out. It, in fact, indicates something quite opposite: The United States has had a long and bloody history of aggression and war making.A survey of history shows that America has either been involved in armed conflict or conducted some form of military operations during 223 ...
The edifice of the post-1991 world order is collapsing right before our eyes. President Putin’s decision to give a miss to the Auschwitz pilgrimage, right after his absence in Paris at Charlie festival, gave it the last shove. It was good clean fun to troll Russia, as long as she stayed the course. Not anymore. Russia broke the rules.Until now, Russia, like a country bumpkin in Eton, tried to belong. It attended the gathering of the grandees where it was shunned, paid its dues to European bodies that condemned it, patiently suffered ceaseless hectoring of the great powers and irritating baiting of the East European small-timers alike. But something broke there. The lad does ...
General James Mattis, the US Secretary of Defence, visited Macedonia on September 17 and declared that “We do not want to see Russia doing [in Macedonia] what they have tried to do in so many other countries. No doubt that they have transferred money and they are also conducting broader influence campaigns.”His observations were made in the run-up to the referendum to be held on September 30 in which Macedonians will vote on a deal reached in June with Greece that would change the country’s name to the Republic of Northern Macedonia. The referendum question is “Do you support EU and NATO ...
The NATO forces justified the bombing of civilian targets as either “mistakes” or essential to the destruction of Milosevic and the Yugoslav Army. However, these attacks were not made solely against military targets but against the Yugoslav population as a whole.
Nis: On May 7, 1999, at least 16 civilians were killed when cluster bombs fell on the town market. 80 civilians were also injured in a repeated attack on housing blocks in central Nis. Cluster bombs are used for the destruction of people and are forbidden by the Geneva Convention.
Many of NATO’s targets were in clear violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits bombing that is not justified by clear military necessity. Under the protocols of the convention, if there is any likelihood that the target has a civilian function, bombing is prohibited.4 For instance, in the case of the targeting of bridges that were used primarily by civilians, it is not enough to say that NATO was merely reckless as to the fate of civilians. NATO targeted not just the military apparatus of Yugoslavia, it sought to devastate and did devastate the civilian infrastructure of Yugoslavia. Electricity power stations, water supplies, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, train tracks, factories, offices and thousands of homes and families were torn apart.
